Stadium De Kuip in Rotterdam is a heavily guarded fortress on Sunday around the football match between arch rivals Feyenoord and Ajax. The Rotterdam police are largely visible and invisible at the stadium. “Several scenarios have been prepared for Sunday to safely receive the bus with Ajax players,” says a spokesman.
The last time the teams met in Rotterdam, on December 19, 2021, almost eighty people were arrested around the game, including for possession of heavy illegal fireworks, insult and public assault. When Ajax’s bus arrived at the stadium, hundreds of rioters attacked it with smoke bombs and fireworks. There was also a group of more than a hundred people who threw fireworks, stones and bottles at the police, among other things. Order had to be restored with, among other things, the deployment of the mobile unit and a water cannon.
According to a spokesperson, the agents of the Football Unit are at work, there is ME and there is regular specialist support such as the police horses. “But there are also invisible measures.” Which ones they are remains a secret.
The police are calling on people to let the game on the field decide in ninety minutes of football. “Any attempt by supporters to disrupt the match or to take actions towards the Ajax players’ bus could be used by the KNVB to take sporting measures against Feyenoord,” said the spokesperson. Police also warn that misconduct could lead to prosecution and stadium bans.
The December 2021 match, which was played in an empty Kuip due to the corona measures, was under extra high tension due to the presence of ex-Feyenoord player Steven Berghuis, who made a much-discussed switch to the Amsterdam club in the summer of 2021.
It is the first time since January 27, 2019 that De Classic, which then ended in a 6-2 win for the home team, will be played in a full stadium again. For years, supporters of the away team have not been welcome at matches between the two rivals due to disturbances in the past surrounding this meeting.
Source: ANP
